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FTW: Call of Duty – Black Ops III attracts gamers

Dino Chiecchi, El Paso Times
Published 4:42 p.m. MT Nov. 5, 2015

A screen shot from the video game 'Call of Duty: Black Ops 3.'(Photo: Activision/Treyarch)

For video game enthusiasts, Friday has the anticipatory feel of Black Friday and celebratory glee of New Year’s Eve.

Call of Duty – Black Ops III is being released tonight and millions can’t wait. In fact, those who have been “pre-rung” got their game at 10 p.m. Thursday “and go home and play,” one GameStop employee said.

“”I‘ve been waiting 365 days,” said Truan Roberson, 23, while standing in line at GameStop at Sunland Park Mall. “I loved Black Ops II. I like the way it plays.”

Roberson, a cornerback with the UTEP Miners football team, will have to wait until Saturday to play the game because the team plays Rice in a rare Friday game.

More than 300 people have already paid for the game at the Sunland Park GameStop and will merely show their receipt at 10 p.m. Thursday and get their Call of Duty, made by Activision Blizzard Inc., handed to them, one employee said.

The game sells for $59.99 for the Xbox 1 and PlayStation 4 versions.

Roberson’s girlfriend, Jordan Atkins, 20, said she also plays against him. “It’s a good game.”

“I can play 10-12 hours,” Roberson said. After he masters one level, he can change the difficulty level and continue killing zombies, one of the game’s enemies in the war game.

The video game industry is smoking hot. Worldwide revenue for the industry topped $70 billion in 2013, according to Global Games Market Report. The worldwide box-office was $35.9 billion in 2013 – just about half the video game industry revenue, according Theatrical Market Statistics.

GameStop employees said they’d heard from a number of customers who were picking up their game late Thursday and taking Friday off to play.

Activision closed up 37 cents to $37.36, or 1 percent, on the Nasdaq market Thursday

Roberson said he often plays online against opponents he doesn’t know or where they are.